


school yard crushes and other things bucky isn't prepared for

by WhereAreTheBreaks



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Cop Steve, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Meet-Cute, Teacher Bucky, sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-12 00:49:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10478334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhereAreTheBreaks/pseuds/WhereAreTheBreaks
Summary: Bucky is just an ordinary elementary school teacher with a lot of patience but when one of his students asks if her police officer uncle can come in and speak to the class he finds his previously thought to be limitless patience to be tested by a dumb blonde with no self preservation instincts.Somehow Bucky still ends up falling for the dumbass.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever fic about Steve and Bucky, and I'm so excited that I've finally gotten around to writing it! It took me forever to write this thing and make it as nice as I could for y'all.
> 
> Lots of thanks to my girl Hannah for being my sound board and helping me figure out some of the finer details.

The first bell of the day startled him, the sudden noise echoed through the empty classroom and also made him realize that he could hear the children laughing and walking through the hallway outside of his classroom. It wasn’t his first day teaching by any means but it was the first time he was having a guest speaker in his classroom that wasn’t Nat. He’d been working on the perfect lesson to introduce the man to his students, it’d taken him more than a few hours but he finally had the perfect mix of handouts and activities.

It wasn’t everyday when a little girl of six announced that her uncle was a police officer in New York who was ‘the bestest EVER’ (aside from her dad of course) and asked if he could come in for career week and talk to everyone about how many lives he saved and stuff. It was hopefully going to be a nice change from last year where the kids had a parent on the brink of tears as the kids muttered about how boring their job in accounting was.

Needless to say, they didn’t come back this year.

A couple of his students walked through the door and started to make their way to their seats, meaning Bucky really needed to start getting ready to teach. He checked the multiple stacks on his desk just to make sure that he had everything he could possibly need; all his handouts and activity sheets were in neat stack just like he’d left them the night before.

It wasn’t long until the room was completely filled with children talking to each other and pulling things out of their bags. It was a family chaos that brought some comfort to Bucky and his slightly frazzled nerves.

Holy shit he was nervous. The kind of nervous that made him want to call Natasha when he had a moment. He didn’t fully understand the feeling because he’d done career day’s before but something told him that today was going to be important.

The bell that signaled the beginning of class rung and Buck didn’t waste a beat.

“Alright class,” Bucky started, raising his voice to be heard over the chatter of children, and clapped his hands together to try and grab their full attention. Used to this routine the children settled down and into their seats quickly. “I have a special announcement,” all the children perked up quickly, “today we are going to have a special guest, Officer Steve Rogers, Emily’s uncle.”

There was a small wave of chatter as they talked amongst themselves about this change in routine.

It wasn’t often that things like special guests came in, most of the time all they did were lessons and worksheets with naps and play mixed in. 

“Unfortunately, he won't be here until eleven so in the meantime we’re going to learn a little bit about what it means to be a police officer.” He laughed quietly as the kids tittered excitedly. “I’m going to pass out a worksheet,” he grabbed the first stack of papers off of his desk and started to make his way around the room. “Can anyone tell me what it is that police officers do?”

A couple of hands shot up and he wasn’t surprised to see that one of them belonged to Emily Wilson. Knowing that she would already know the answers, he called on another student.

“Michael, please tell the class what police officers do.”

“They catch the bad guys!”

There was a small chorus of ‘yeahs’ from the rest of the class, making Bucky chuckle quietly as he reached the last of the students.

“That’s not all that they do!” Sarah sounded so indigent.

“Well why don’t you enlighten the class for me.”

She paused and thought for a moment before standing in front of her chair and turning to face the class. “They make sure the streets are safe for _everybody_ , they make sure that justice is served to the right people and that people who do bad things get caught so that they can’t do anything to hurt anybody else.” One she was done she looked so proud of herself. 

There was a strange moment of silence before someone tentatively started clapping and several other students joined in.

“Alright everybody, settle down.” Restoring order to a bunch of five and six year olds was difficult but Bucky liked to think he had the cream of the crop because they almost always listened to him. “Now let’s learn a little bit more about what it means to be a police officer before our quest shows up.”

 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

 

Emily was practically buzzing in her seat as she watched the clock tick closer and closer to eleven o'clock, her excitement had most of the other student’s practically leaning forward in their seats waiting with baited breath as everything ticked down to the moment when the door would open. Bucky had to admit that he was more than a little excited as well, but if anyone asked him he would say that atmosphere of excitement was getting to him.

Five minutes til eleven there was a soft knock at the door and the amount of tension that had built up in the room made the whole thing seem more suitable for a scene in a thriller than an elementary school classroom. Bucky quickly opened the door for the man and suddenly it was like all the air in the room was gone because holy shit Steve Rogers was a freaking greek god or something like that. His soft looking, red lips were quirked into a shy smile.

“Hi, I’m Steve Rogers. We talked on the phone earlier this week, you must be Bucky Barnes.” Steve stuck his hand out and Bucky couldn’t really do anything but dumbly stare at it for a moment.

“Mr. Barnes, he wants you to shake his hand.” Someone from the back of the room called out, a couple of the other students quietly chuckled.

Bucky turned bright red as he finally gave Steve’s hand a firm shake.

Christ, he even had on the uniform, pressed with the badge polished and everything. It hugged his broad shoulders ridiculously well. When Emily Wilson told him about her uncle he can’t say that he was expecting someone like this.

He turned towards the class and was surprised at the awe that seemed to be on every one of his students faces, even Emily seemed a little caught up in the moment even though she had grown up with this man in her life. 

“Alright class, let’s give Officer Rogers a warm welcome.”

Steve smiled as the whole class greeted him at once.

“Hey everyone, my name is Steve. I’m a police officer.” He awkwardly waved to the class before offering Emily a warm smile. He seemed a little uncomfortable under the eyes of twenty-three small children, but Bucky was sure that he’d warm up to them quickly. “I guess I could start with tell you guys what it is I usual do?” 

One of the girls in the front raised her hand, Steve gestured to her and she tentatively answered:

“You catch the bad guy and help make sure they are punished for their crimes.” She struggled with some of the words but Bucky was happy that at least one of his students had absorbed some of what he had taught them.

“That’s right.” He looked a little impressed with her response. 

Bucky smiled apologetically at Steve. “I might have brushed them up on some of the finer points of what it means to be a police officer.”

He laughed, “Oh ok. Well then, does anyone have anything they’d like to know?”

It wasn’t much of a surprise when six hands shot up before he’d even finished asking.

“Um, you in the green shirt.” Steve pointed at a girl at one of the back tables.

“How many bad guys have you put away?”

Steve thought for a moment before cautiously answering, “At least 50. How about the young man in the purple shirt?”

“Have you done a bank robbery? My dad loves to watch movies with those!”

“Oh yeah, I have actually. There was this one time..” Steve launched straight into the story.

While Steve talked to and shared stories with the little ones, Bucky had planned to do something to either get ahead in lesson plans or grading but in reality he spent most of the time as engrossed in the man as the rest of his students. The way he told his stories was enthralling and Bucky was a weaker man. Steve jumped from story to story leaving pauses long enough to allow for oohs and ahhs from the crowd of admirers.

At the end of a riveting story about stopping a robbery, Steve looked up at the clock and realized that almost an hour and a half had passed since he’d gotten there.

“So yeah, that’s just some of the more exciting stuff I do as a police officer.” He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and glance at Bucky. “It was my understanding that you had some activities planned, Mr. Barnes?”  
He straightened (heh) up in his seat and looked down at the untouched pile of handouts. “Oh yes,” he stood and picked up the pile. “I have some activities planned to go along with safety and what it means to do what you do.”

“By all means, let’s get that started.”

The kids seemed to somehow manage to pout in unison as the papers started to make their way onto desks.

“I wanna hear more stories!” 

“Yeah! Can’t Mister Officer just tell one more? Please Mr. B?”

“Just one more?”

Bucky sighed as he took in their pleading faces. “Okay, one more. Only if it’s alright with Officer Rogers though.”

Lightning fast every face in the room swivelled towards Steve and he looked a little wide eyed at the onslaught.

“Well... uh...” He turned to Bucky, looking for help. He found none. “I suppose one more story wouldn’t hurt.”

The cheer was loud and Bucky laughed at the startled look that flashed over the officer’s handsome face. The longer he stared at the blonde the more apparent the red that blossomed on his cheek became. It was clear that Steve wasn’t very used to this much attention being directed at him, something Bucky found hard to believe given how attractive the man was. 

Everyone - including Bucky - waits impatiently for Steve to launch into another fantastic tale of heroics. There was a moment when the room was the quietest it's ever been as everyone waited. The kindergarteners were literally leaning forward in their seats in anticipation of what was too come.

“There was one time, a year or so ago, my partner - Sam - and I were involved in a high speed chase downtown...”

Listening to Steve Rogers go on about the adventures that came with his job had to be the highlight of his week.

 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

 

Before any of them realized it it was one-fifteen a.k.a. Recess. The kids fidgeted with excitement just like they did everyday as they made their way through the halls towards the playground.

Steve accompanied them before he had to go back to the precinct, walking with them through the halls and talking quietly with some of the kids that still had some questions for him. It wasn’t until the doors leading outside were thrown open that Steve approached him.

“I’m sorry I talked so much back there. Things get away from me sometimes.”

“It’s alright, as long as they,” he gestured to the running, screaming terrors scattered about 30 feet away, “had fun then that’s pretty much all that matters to me. Plus, that's a little less paperwork for me. I’ve got some unexpected free time now.”

Steve looked at him with deep blue eyes that he could fall right into, really looked at him, and then threw his head back and laughed. We’re talking hand on pec, shaking with it laughter. 

“I thought you’d be mad that they didn’t have the chance to do everything you had planned.” He explained once he was able to catch his breath. 

“Nah, everybody had a good time. Plus, I don’t mind listening to you talk.” The words didn’t register until they were already out of his mouth. He quickly looked at Steve to gauge his reaction but all he found was careful consideration.

“Well then,” It was hesitant. “Would you wanna spend this new found free time with me?”

It was unexpected but not unwelcome.

Thinking back on the class it wasn’t that much of a surprise given how much eye contact Steve and him shared. The red tinge of his cheeks never completely faded either. If there were any other signs of interest from Steve then Bucky missed them, far too absorbed in the man to notice.

Steve started to fidget and got the beginnings of what looked like a killer puppy dog face going before Bucky blurted out, “I’d like that” before he could give it all that much thought.

The smile he got in response was almost blinding. “Awesome.”

Steve pulled a little notebook out of one of his pockets and scribbled something down before ripping the page out and handing it to Bucky. When he unfolded it it had Steve’s number hastily scribbled across it. 

“Call me and we’ll see if we can find something to do to fill the void of grading papers I’ve left you with.”

Just like that Steve was gone.

The rest of the day passed in a bit of a blur and once the last of the kids left his care he didn’t waste a beat before he called the only person he could think to talk to about any of this stuff. 

The call was picked up with a small near inaudible click.

“Nat, you’re not going to believe what happened to me today.” He greeted.

“Well hi to you too friend, my day’s been great, we got a couple of new classes going but other than that nothing much has been going on with me. How about you?” She was so snarky sometimes, it’s one of the many things he loved about her. She was one of those people that made you forget how small she was because she filled so much space with her big personality. 

“Do you remember when I told you that I was going to have a guest speaker, one of the student’s uncle was a cop and was willing to speak to the class? Well he spoke to them today, and kind of asked me out?” He cringed.

There was a pause.

“I’m coming over and you are going to tell me everything. Be there in twenty.” She hung up before he could do anything, like point out that he wasn’t at home for example.

He sighed and put his phone away, when Nat said something was going to happen it was better to just let her have her way than argue with her. So he pushed the neat piled of paperwork into his bag to take home or into the drawers of his desk and started packing up for the day. Not like he was getting much done anyway, not when all he could think about were deep blue eyes and a surprisingly deep voice. 

 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

 

He barely beat Nat back to his apartment, he’d just put his bag on the floor when she knocked on the door. Before he even took a step forwards she was waltzing into the apartment red curls swaying behind her.

“So what’s this I hear about a hot cop?” She asked as she dropped down onto his couch. “Did you say yes to the date?” She picked up one of the magazines that lived on his table and flicked through it, looking to all the rest of the world bored with the conversation.

“Yeah, I did actually.” He was almost proud of the way that she paused for a moment before putting the magazine back down.

“James, I’m shocked. You didn’t cockblock yourself.”

“I don’t do that!” Sure, it’s been awhile since his last date but his life was just so busy. It was easier to just wait until things slowed down in his life.

Natasha gave him a look of complete and utter disbelief that then morphed into pity. 

“Oh, James. You totally sabotage yourself all of the time. Do you even still have the dating app I downloaded for you?”

“Well, no, but that isn’t because I’m sabotaging myself! I wasn’t going on it cause I was busy and so it was just wasting space on my phone.” Saying it out loud did make it sound like he was proving her point but it was the truth. That’s totally not because of sabotage or whatever her point was.

Her response was of course to sigh and shake her head in pity. All while muttering something about idiots. All of Bucky’s friends seemed to be weirdly invested in his love life, always telling him to break out of his comfort zone and put himself out there and find someone to have an actual relationship with.

Truth of the matter was that Bucky actually really liked how his life was going. He got his dream job, a least some of his student debt was under control, and going to bars on the weekends seemed to be doing him just fine. 

“Well are you actually going to set up the date?” Natasha asked, breaking into his thoughts.

“Sure.”

Natasha narrowed her eyes. “Do it now.”

“Why?” He smirked and sat down on the couch next to her. “Don’t think I’ll do it?”

“Exactly, so you’re going to do it right now while I’m here to witness it.” 

They stared each other down. It was something they had a habit of doing a lot, getting into weirdly challenging staring contests.

He broke first. “Fine, I’ll do it.”

She stretched until her feet were in his lap looking all too pleased with herself.

“But you have to ask out Clint, I know you’ve got a crush on him.”

He wasn’t even upset when she threw a pillow at his head, just laughed and pulled his phone out of his pocket and waited for her to do the same.


End file.
